Home Blog Nov 25: Statistics in Practice

Nov 25: Statistics in Practice

In this week’s Brief, we take a look at the history of betting and how it is entwined with probabilistic decision-making. Probabilistic decision-making is also the focus of our 3-course Optimization Mastery, which covers linear programming, integer programming, simulation and other operations research (O/R) techniques. Start with:

- Jan 3 – 31: Optimization – Linear Programming

See you in class!

– Peter Bruce,
Chief Academic Officer, Author, Instructor, and Founder

The Institute for Statistics Education at Statistics.com

Betting

The Science of Probability and Statistics

Will narcissists apologize for their interpersonal transgressions? In this week’s brief we look at how government-funded researchers are trying to leverage crowd-sourced betting to find answers to this question (and other more pressing ones) […]

Of Note

Operations Research (O/R) of Sewage

Older urban sewer systems are not sealed, dedicated route networks leading to sewage treatment plants. Rather, to save money when they were built decades ago, in some places they shared pipes with storm water drainage systems that lead to creeks, rivers and bays. As a result, when stormwater inundates the system, it carries with it some of the sewage directly into waterways. Many cities have been working to separate the two systems, but it’s a huge job. Are there solutions other than “big digs?” […]

Instructor Spotlight

Cliff Ragsdale

Cliff T. Ragsdale teaches several courses for the Institute in the area of operations research, based on his best selling text Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis. One of Cliff’s special talents is making his subject, which can be quite challenging technically, widely accessible […]

Quote(s)

Good decisions do not always result in good outcomes*… However, consistently using a structured, model-based process to make decisions should produce good outcomes more frequently than making decisions in a haphazard manner.

Cliff Ragsdale, author of Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis.

*I would add a corollary:

A good outcome does not prove, though it may suggest, that the decision was good.

Peter Bruce, President, Statistics.com

Course Spotlight

Jan 3-31: Optimization: Linear Programming

Traditional operations research techniques are often left out of standard data science and analytics programs; you can pick up these important skills with our 3-course Optimization Mastery, organized and taught by award-winning professor and best-selling textbook author Cliff Ragsdale.

- Linear Programming
- Sensitivity Analysis
- Shadow Pricing
- Network flow & routing
- Integer linear programming
- Nonlinear programming
- Simulation
- Queuing
- Decision Trees

Nearly every facet of economic life is informed by these techniques – how to best route deliveries, likely wait times for customers contacting a call center, queuing behavior of data packets transiting a switch, structuring strategic decisions involving uncertain payoffs, making the most efficient use of resources, and much more.

Get started with the first of 3 courses on January 3.